MANKATO, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team advanced to the championship game of the UMAC Tournament for the first time since 2016-17 on Friday night by going on the road and defeating the No. 1 seed, Bethany Lutheran College, by a score of 70-60. It was a night for the road teams in the UMAC as No. 3 seed North Central University blew past No. 2 seed University of Northwestern, so the Cougars will travel to Minneapolis on Sunday to face NCU. 

Bethany Lutheran came into the night as the top three-point shooting team in the conference, but it was the 3-for-20 performance from behind the arc that helped do the Vikings in. The tough defense from Minnesota Morris on the perimeter combined with 21 turnovers from BLC was the recipe that the Cougars needed to build a lead and hold on down the stretch.

It was a tough start offensively for Minnesota Morris and more than three minutes went by before the Cougars got on the board. Bethany Lutheran scored the first four points of the night, but a 9-0 run by UMN Morris midway through the quarter gave the team an 11-6 lead. Despite a jumper late in the quarter from Hanna Geistfeld (a game-high 28 points), the Cougars took a 15-14 advantage into the second quarter.

The Vikings began the second quarter by scoring six of the first eight points to go on top, 20-17. Tariq Brownotter knotted the score with a triple to kick off an 8-0 run that gave Minnesota Morris a 25-20 lead and the Cougars wouldn't relinquish that edge the rest of the night. Despite not connecting on a field goal in the final five minutes of the half, the Cougar defense resiliently kept them in it and allowed Minnesota Morris to go the break with a 28-25 lead.

Not surprisingly, Bethany Lutheran turned to Geistfeld coming out of halftime and the senior for the Vikings had their first six points of the third quarter and eventually scored 13 of their 15 in the quarter. Despite her efforts, Minnesota Morris continued to build the lead as Lexus Eagle Chasing and Jay Kwateh combined for the last nine points of the frame, giving the Cougars a 47-40 advantage going into the final 10 minutes.

The Cougars did enough down the stretch from the foul line to maintain a healthy cushion on the Vikings. The Minnesota Morris lead topped out at 12 points on three occasions, the last of which came on a jumper from Kwateh for a 59-47 lead with four minutes to play. A Bethany Lutheran three, its only make from beyond the arc in the second half, brought the Vikings within five with just under a minute remaining, but the Cougars hit 7-of-10 at the stripe after that to hang on. 

Eagle Chasing finished with a team-high 19 points, along with six rebounds. Haley Wollschlager was the other starter in double-figures with 13. Malory Anderson approached a double-double off the bench with 15 points and nine boards. 

The Cougars will now look to finish their run through the UMAC Tournament by getting some revenge on North Central. The Rams won an 85-80 overtime thriller in Morris in early January, then took a 50-47 grind from the Cougars three weeks ago. Sunday's game in Minneapolis will get underway at 2 p.m.